Run Lincoln Run
by bhut
Summary: Post the "Laws..." episode. Lincoln Campbell once had a life. Now he has nothing...


**Run Lincoln Run**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Marvel™._

 _Note: this story contains spoilers._

Just few days ago, Lincoln Campbell had it all: a steady job, friends, good income, and a life – with options. He was a doctor, a respected member of his community – and an adjustment councillor in another community: the Li Shi of the InHumans, as he was one of them... and then he lost it all.

It all began with Jiaying Zabo and her husband, Cal. Lincoln never liked Cal, but Jiaying? She was something else: warm and loving and kind, not to mention wise and experienced in the way of the InHumans. And also beautiful – in an exotic, refined, delicate way. Lincoln would never hit on her, but he was in love with her, as many other male residents of Li Shi were... It was all a lie. Jiaying was none of those things, but a murderer, a monster, and so were Lincoln and his friends who had followed her onto the _Iliad_ to the end. Lincoln had the good luck and wisdom to recognize what was going on in time and save himself – but not his friends, who either died or were captured by S.H.I.E.L.D... and now the same organization wanted him to work for them, to propagate the lie.

Or rather Daisy (or was she Skye?) did. Daisy was very much like her mother – beautiful in an exotic sort of way, albeit more physically fit and robust...and also bossy, domineering, and really disliking of the word 'no'. Given time, Lincoln might've come back to S.H.I.E.L.D., just to see who were the poor souls that got caught in the ecodisaster that Jiaying and the others (including him, he will never forget this fact) had unleashed, but Daisy continued to press and prod, using the agent Mackenzie as a bad cop (and for some reason he reminds Lincoln of Gordon, which doesn't improve his mood any), until they – and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D. had drawn the attention of others to him and his hospital, both that of ACTU, (who are determined to turn the US into a prison state of some sort, Lincoln bets), and of a misshapen ogre called Lash, who clearly intends to kill all of the other InHumans in the world – who does he think he is? An immortal Scot? Lincoln does not care. He is not a villain, he does not want to think of himself as a monster, but he isn't a hero, or even an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and he doesn't want to be that – why can't S.H.I.E.L.D. respect that, as their director promised that they would? It was another lie – one more lie in Lincoln's rapidly deteriorating world...

And now, thanks to Daisy and Mack and Lash the ogre, Lincoln had lost most of it – his world. His place in the world, in the normal world, is gone. His secret has been exposed, and he has no real options left. He cannot go to Hydra, (they'll just kill him, most likely, and if he's really unlucky – they _won't_ ), but he has no intention of going back to S.H.I.E.L.D. – not after how they have put him into this mess.

Plus, working for director Coulson and Daisy and Mack and others, perpetuating Jiaying's lie? Lincoln is not that wretched yet. Perhaps he could go to ACTU – but they seem to be not unlike what S.H.I.E.L.D. is – the same song, to a slightly different tune, and perhaps not even that.

Lincoln Campbell once had a life that had options and promises of something good and wonderful – but now it is all gone, and he can only run and hide, hoping that – but there is no hope. Whoever it is that will find him? Lincoln will not like it.

(Somewhere, he is certain, Cal Zabo is laughing at him.)

End

 _Author's note 2: I am not the biggest fan of Skye/Lincoln pairing. (Skye/Ward pairing would have been much more interesting.) That said, after seeing the season's premiere, I feel really sorry for Lincoln: his relationship with Skye had become both unnecessarily complicated and a cliché: Lincoln is a doctor, just like Cal was in S2, while Daisy is a leader, like Jia was, albeit in a better way. Obviously, they are going to inherit Li Shi and guide the InHumans into a better life as anti-Zabos in a good way. This can certainly work – but did they have to make Lincoln a doctor? This is just mean and demeaning to his character. I hope that the future episodes will make his relationship with Skye more than just Cal and Jia revised._

 _End AN2_


End file.
